Faculty Profile - School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering

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Julius B Lucks

Julius B Lucks
Dept: Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Title: James C. and Rebecca Q. Morgan Sesquicentennial Faculty Fellow
Address: 214 Olin Hall
Phone: 607 255-3601
email:
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Biography

Miller Fellow
University of California Berkeley, 2008-2011

Hertz Graduate Fellow
Harvard University, 2002-2007
Ph D, Chemical Physics

Churchill Scholar
Cambridge University, 2001-2002
M. Phil, Theoretical Chemistry

Goldwater Scholar (2000-2001)
University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, 1997-2001
BS Chemistry

Research Interests

The Lucks group is interested in the bottom-up design and construction of sophisticated genetic systems with predictable function. While great strides in the technical ability to synthesize and assemble DNA have been made, the ability to design a genetic system from the ground up is in its infancy. Meanwhile, there has never been a greater demand for programmable genetic engineering to solve some of the world's most pressing problems in energy, ecology and medicine.

The Lucks group uses biomolecular engineering to ask fundamental questions at two levels. By focusing on RNA-based regulators of gene expression, the first question we ask is- How can we design RNA sequences to fold into specific RNA structures that regulate gene expression as desired? Using our designed RNA regulators as tools, in combination with other regulatory mechanisms, the second question is- What are the design principles of constructing gene regulatory networks out of well-characterized building blocks that have predictable function?

Our research is highly interdisciplinary and utilizes both wet lab and computational techniques. In the wet lab, we use methods spanning from molecular cloning and flow cytometric analysis to next generation RNA sequencing techniques to measure RNA structures in a massively parallel fashion. On the computational side, we complement our experiments with modeling of gene expression networks and biophysical models of RNA folding.

Through integrating these complementary perspectives and techniques, we seek creative, cutting-edge solutions to these biomolecular engineering problems.

Teaching Interests

Application of core chemical engineering concepts (thermodynamics, kinetics, transport) to the design principles of engineering biomolecular systems.

Selected Publications

Mortimer, Stephanie A., Cole Trapnell, Sharon Aviran, Lior Pachter, Julius Lucks. 2012. "SHAPE-Seq: High Throughput RNA Structure Analysis." Current Protocols in Chemical Biology 4: 275-297.
Qi, Lei S., Weston Whittaker, Adam P. Arkin, Julius Lucks. 2008. "Toward scalable parts families for predictable design of biological circuits." Current Opinion of Microbiology 11 (6): 567-573.
Cordero, P., Julius Lucks, R Das. 2012. "An RNA Mapping DataBase for curating RNA structure mapping experiments." Bioinformatics 28 (22): 3006-8.
Vitelli, Vincenza, David R. Nelson, Julius Lucks. 2006. "Crystallography on curved surfaces." PNAS 103 (33): 12323-12328.
Mortimer, Stefanie A., Cole Trapnell, Shujun Luo, Sharon Aviran, Gary P. Schroth, Lior Pachter, Jennifer A. Doudna, Adam P. Arkin, Julius Lucks. 2011. "Multiplexed RNA structure characterization with selective 2'-hydroxyl acylation analyzed by primer extension sequencing (SHAPE-Seq)." PNAS 108 (27): 11063-11068.